Thanks for joining us on another TFB Field Strip adventure, where we’ll look at the Yugoslavian, Zastava M57 pistol, and by extension, its predecessor the Soviet TT series.  I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Yugo M57 by friends I was shooting with and the owner was kind enough to let me share the field strip process with TFB readers.

As the pistol’s designation “M57” vaguely implies, it was adopted in 1957, and was a slightly different variant of the Soviet TT series of pistols.  The primary advantage of the Zastava M57 was the added capacity of one extra round for a total of nine rounds compared to the Soviet pistol’s eight.  The owner of the M57 below, Dale, said that Zastava is importing them with safeties, either on the frame or as a trigger safety similar to Glock’s.  Dale said that once he received his, he removed the trigger safety and filled in the holes.  Zastava is also still manufacturing the M57(A) in 7.62×25 Tokarev and the M70AA in 9mm which you can check out HERE.  This model was fun to shoot and had great accuracy too.

TFB FIELD STRIP: ZASTAVA M57, M70 & SOVIET TT-33 SERIES PISTOLS

BEFORE YOU FIELD STRIP ANY WEAPON, REMEMBER the four rules of gun safety:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it

STEP 1. As always, remove the magazine and ensure that the weapon’s chamber is free of any ammunition, then start the M57 field strip process with the slide forward. The elongated “C” clip on the right side of the M57 needs to be moved rearward off of the forward-most pin, which is also the slide stop and takedown pin. You can use the magazine floor plate if you wish. The “C” clip is captured by the rearward pin and can be left there.

STEP 2. One unique aspect of the M57 and TT pistols is that the slide does not have to be indexed before removing the takedown pin, so you can begin to push on the pin from the right side and pull the slide stop out on the left side. The slide can then be moved forward off the frame.

STEP 3. Focusing on the slide, pull the recoil spring assembly down and out. The guide rod is hinged to make this process easier. From here, the similarities to the 1911 can be seen with the swinging link barrel lug and barrel bushing. The bushing needs to be turned upward until it can be pulled out from the muzzle end. Push the barrel lug up, then pull the barrel out the front of the slide.

STEP 4. Turning again to the frame, the hammer group is free to pull up out of the frame if you so desire and doesn’t require any pin removal to do so. The grips are also easily removed by moving a lever on each grip panel on the inside of the magazine well.

This ends the field strip process for the Zastava M57 and Soviet TT series of pistols. Reassemble in reverse order.  Thanks to Dale for sharing his pistol with TFB!